For the past several years, Pensacola has been a favorite stop for up-and-coming tennis players looking to make their mark at the professional level.

The Pensacola Pro Futures Championship, founded in the fall of 2010, has seen current top world-wide players like top American Jack Sock, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and 18-year old Canadian star Denis Shapovalov find early success on the clay courts of Roger Scott Tennis Center.

The 2017 edition promises to be just as competitive, certainly with future stars in the mix playing for a piece of $15,000—and it all starts with the wild card round at noon today.

Just as in previous Pensacola pro tennis events, put on by the city and Pensacola Sports, there will be a local flair early on.

Derrick Racine, head coach of the NCAA Division II champion University of West Florida Argonauts said he’ll have his top players competing from day one. No. 1 player Serdar Bojadjiev of Sweden will be joined by teammates Juan Cabrera of Argentina, newcomer Nicolas Lecoutre of France and Lucas Sanchez of Brazil will hit the clay for some prime experience as they get ready for the upcoming season.

“We have a lot of guys playing in it — it’s a really good tournament experience for us,” said Racine, who has ten players in the 45-player wild card field. “Serdar became our No. 1 player this fall and has been playing well. He was in the finals of the ITA regional tournament, and has had a great fall and has worked really hard. Juan played the qualifier tourney over in Niceville and did really well, as well as Nicolas, and Lucas did really well in Niceville.”

The wild card goes though Thursday, while the 128-player qualifiers round begins Friday and go through the weekend. The two finalists of the wild card automatically get into the main draw 32-player field beginning next Tuesday, Nov. 14. Both singles and doubles finals of the main draw will be Sunday, Nov. 19.

“It’s good to have this high quality tennis right here in Pensacola,” Racine said. “A lot of the guys play these events during the summer, when they’re not in school—when you’re in school, it’s really hard with travel and studies. So to have one in your hometown is a huge plus. It’s not only good to come out and watch our guys, but also see the future stars of tomorrow, really.”

Despite losing seven seniors of last season’s championship squad, Racine believes his young team can compete with the best.

“Last year, our No. 1 doubles team went all the way to the finals of the main draw, so it’s possible for them to go deep in the tournament, but it’s a really level playing field with a lot of good players,” Racine said. “All of our guys are freshmen and sophomores—this is a good year to see if those guys can step up.”

Tournament director Skip Vogelsang said Pensacola is ready to put on another first-class show over the next couple of weeks.

“We’ve got eight players in the top 500 in the world coming, including Javier Marti, ranked 274th in the world.” Vogelsang said. “We’re also doing a small four local team tournament this Sunday (at noon) for the main draw of doubles wild card, including former UWF players Bruno Savi and Pedro Dumont, and Scott’s William McClelland and Paul Einhart—so that might generate some local fans.”

Vogelsang said the biggest challenge off court is encouraging members of the tennis community to come watch some of the world’s best play basically right in their backyard.

"This is not just another local tournament — it’s a pro tournament bringing in players from all over the world, players that will be on TV soon,” Vogelsang said.